A video surveillance system has a function of performing recognition processing on a video acquired form an image pickup device such as a camera and detecting a moving object such as a person or vehicle appearing in a surveillance area. This video surveillance system has a function of recording only a video in which a moving object appears, by utilizing the result of the detection, a function of presenting a warning icon to a display device, and a function of sounding a buzzer or the like to draw attention of surveillance officers, and the like. Therefore, the system serves for reduction in the burden of surveillance work in which constant confirmation work was required before. Also, with this video surveillance system, if a criminal act such as theft or a wrongdoing occurs, the recorded video can serve for the criminal investigation or the like after the incident.
Recently, due to the diversification of crimes, increase in the number of crimes committed and fall in arrest rate, awareness of crime prevention is raised at mass merchandisers, financial institutions, buildings and business offices, and the like, and introduction of video surveillance systems is in progress. As video recording devices have larger capacities and cameras are installed at various places due to widespread availability of network cameras and the like, the number of cameras is increased. As described above, sifting through recorded videos to spot a criminal act or the like by visual inspection work by surveillance officers is a very heavy burden. Therefore, assistance functions for surveillance work are increasingly demanded.
The problem here is that, with the increase in the number of cameras, the work of surveillance officers observing a desired video, for example, a specific person, becomes very complicated. Unless they are skilled officers with full knowledge of the surveillance area and the status of the surveillance cameras, it is difficult to observe videos efficiently without any oversight.
Conventionally, a surveillance system is known in which moving positions of a camera with a pan head control function are registered in advance, and in which a video of a surveillance area is acquired while the pan head of the camera is turned to a predetermined position, linked to the result of detection by a sensor (PTL 1). Also, a surveillance system is known in which the positional relation between a plurality of cameras is registered and in which a video displayed on a monitor is switched on the basis of a user's instruction or the moving direction of a moving object (PTL 2).